BEER HISTORY: Some time ago I asked the name of the first brewery to deliver to Bettws in 1948. I thank Mr Colin Waters for the correct answer. Since then the feedback has been really great. I received a letter from Ken Edwards on the subject and am pleased to state some history.

Mr Thomas Phillips came to Newport from Northampton in 1874 and bought Dock Road Brewery from Thomas Floyd Lewis, the year the first tramcar appeared. The delivery contract in those days was 100 barrels a week, delivered by two horse-drawn drays.

Thomas Phillips had ten children. Two boys, Clifford and Frederick, were to become mayors and aldermen of the town.

An interesting part of the history was that the family owned a rugby ball bought in Rugby, known as the opening of the sport by university student Webb Ellis, and that ball was acquired for just 13s 6d, which turned out to be the very first one ever kicked in Newport, therefore the rugby club can thank T Phillips.

A brother, William Phillips, became captain of Newport RFC.

The Phillips family lived at 31 Cardiff Road, now the site of the accident and emergency department, Royal Gwent Hospital. The company's headquarters were in Station Street bottling plant, a building still standing today, next to the bus stop by the railway station.

In 1898 a malthouse was built on Penner Wharf and the Phillips and Sons' first public house purchased was called The Nelson, on Canal Parade.

Ken Edwards' father, Sidney Edwards, was employed by the company for more than 40 years, from boy to cellar foreman, and finally retired when the brewery moved to Bristol.

The company was taken over by Symmonds Brewery and later by Courage Western.

This week's question is for all you horse-racing fans: Q: Where was the only horse-racing course in Newport? The year was 1834.

Answers to the above address please.

REAL DIAMONDS: Mr and Mrs D P Young have enjoyed a wonderful life together. After the war ended they married on April 7, 1947, at St Paul's Church, Newport, before moving into rooms in Lime Street. They later moved to Maesglas Crescent, one of the first completed.

They were blessed with three children, Christine, Douglas and Kenneth, and later became grandparents to 13, and great-grandparents to three. They have always been a close-knit family, and the highlight of their parent's married life came when they received a message by special delivery: "ER, The Lord Chamberlain, is commanded by Her Majesty to invite Mr and Mrs D P Young to a Garden Party at Buckingham Palace, on July 15, 1997, from 4pm-6pm."

As part of the golden wedding anniversary of the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh.

Mr Young, after the war, worked on the British Railways and after many years suffered a serious back injury but wearing a back and neck bodice and brace actually carried on working, by cycling to work at the docks or Uskmouth railway sidings, so was his vision of still providing for his family, until he finally retired in 1982.

On December 16 2005 the couple moved to Tone Close, Bettws, and soon found out the neighbours' feelings for they invited the couple in for Christmas lunch, and also mowed their lawn for them. Christine told me: "My parents are the greatest, they have seen the bad days and good, and after 45 years of working they became inseparable. Dad still worships the ground mam walks on and to actually meet the Queen and Duke was the ultimate of a wonderful life, a truly marvellous family."

May I extend my heartiest congratulations to a wonderful couple.